Proceedings of the Royal Society for the month of November, 1892

More than ordinary interest centred in the closing meeting for the present session of the Royal Society held on Monday. It was the last occasion on which Sir Robert Hamilton would preside at the Society's meetings, and also the time selected for the delivery of his valedictory address as President. The Art Gallery at the Museum was prepared, and provided splendid accommodation for the 200 or more ladies and gentlemen, members, and their friends, present on the invitation of the Council. His Excellency and Lady Hamilton were received by the Council and Secretary. The audience included the Premier (Hon.
Henry Dobson) and other members of the Ministry. Apologies for absence were received from two members of the Council.
The Hon. J. W. Agnew (honorary secretary and senior vice- president of the Society), in prefacing the reading of the following address to the President, referred eulogistically to the warm practical interest Sir Robert Hamilton had displayed in the operations of the Society.
On the eve of your departure from the colony we, the Council of the Royal Society of Tasmania, desire to express, on behalf of the Fellows, our warm and cordial appreciation of the deep and practical interest which your Excellency has ever taken in the work of this Society Mr. Barnard, vice-president and senior member of the Society, said ; Your Excellency and Lady Hamilton, by way of supplement to the address which has just been presented to Your Excellency by Dr. Agnew, I have now the pleasant and agreeable duty to perform on behalf of the Council and Fellows of the Royal Society, of offering for Lady Hamilton's acceptance a Tasmanian black opossum skin rug as a token of the personal respect and esteem in which she is held by the members of this Society. It is not too much to say of Lady Hamilton that she is a pattern of all the domestic virtues, and that during her residence in Tasmania she has, both by precept and example, exercised a beneficial influence upon society generally, and upon young people in particular, that is likely to prove of lasting effect.
Includes the President’s address. During the Session, which closer this evening, eight meetings have been held, and twenty-two papers have been read. The number of Fellows of the Society has been increased by 12, and the number of Corresponding Members by eight. The Society has sustained a loss by the death of Captain Shortt, B.N., who for 10 years held the post of Meteorological Observer for Tasmania. Captain Shortt furnished this Society with many valuable notes. He was a regular attendant at our meetings and took part in our discussions, although the hour at which he made his evening observations necessitated his leaving generally before they were over. He was an accurate and careful observer, and his sound common sense in dealing which his observations rendered them of much practical use.
During the same period, the University of Tasmania has been founded, and although it is early yet to speak of what it has done, it has great days before it. The gentlemen charged with its administration seem to me to be going the right way to work. They are fully alive to the fact that you must walk before you can run, and that you do not require a miniature Oxford or Cambridge in Tasmania. They know that science teaching must occupy a more prominent place in their curriculum than it does in the curriculum of these ancient seats of learning, and they will not be deterred from utilising their University to meet the wants of the community by any consideration that in so doing they may be departing somewhat from the functions of the old Universities at Home. But I am glad to see indications of a determination on their part that their standard shall be high. In this they are right and wise. The time must come when Hobart will be a great educational centre of a united Australia, and the higher the standard in Tasmania is known to be, the sooner will its University attract the youth from the other colonies, who will get at its seat of learning an education and training at least equal to that their own Universities afford, while at the same time they will be laying in a store of health and vigour, which, in the battle of life, is second only in importance to education itself.